* The Rangers were defeated by the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2, today at Madison Square Garden, and are now 31-26-4 overall with a 14-13-3 mark at home.
* The Blueshirts were not awarded a power play opportunity in the contest. It is the second time this season they did not skate in a power play (Nov. 15 at PIT, 3-2 win in overtime).
* Wojtek Wolski opened the game’s scoring with an even strength tally at 12:43 of the first period, and tied for the game-high with six shots on goal in 21:22 of ice time. He has registered 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in the last 15 games.
* Derek Stepan notched a goal at 5:28 of the third period, and registered five shots on goal and won a game-high, eight faceoffs in 13 attempts (62%). He has now tallied seven points (three goals, four assists) in the last eight home games.
* Dan Girardi registered the primary assist on Stepan’s third period goal, and logged 24:33 of ice time. He was also credited with a game-high-tying, six hits and led the team with three blocked shots. Entering today’s contest, Girardi led the league with 169 blocked shots.
* Ryan McDonagh recorded the primary assist on Wolski’s first period goal, and logged a career-high, 23:15 of ice time.
* Michael Sauer tallied one assist and registered two blocked shots in 23:46 of ice time. He has now recorded two assists in the last three games.
* Marc Staal registered one assist and logged a team-high, 26:12 of ice time. He has now recorded four points (one goal, three assists) in the last five games.
* Henrik Lundqvist stopped 20 of 23 shots and is now 23-20-4, including a 10-10-3 mark at home.
* Ryan Callahan was credited with a game-high-tying, six hits and registered four shots on goal in 20:24 of ice time. Callahan is currently tied for 11th in the NHL with 163 hits on the season.
* New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that forward Kris Newbury has been recalled from the Connecticut Whale of the American Hockey League (AHL). Newbury, 28, has recorded nine goals and 33 assists for 42 points, along with 105 penalty minutes in 51 games with Connecticut this season. He leads the team and is tied for eighth in the AHL in assists, ranks second on the Whale in points and fourth in penalty minutes. Newbury returns to the Rangers, where he has registered one assist and 35 penalty minutes in eight games this season. He made his Blueshirts debut at Montreal on January 15, and recorded his first point as a Ranger with the primary assist on the game-tying goal in a 3-2 shootout win at Atlanta on January 22. The Brampton, Ontario native was originally San Jose’s fifth round pick, 139th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He was acquired by the Rangers from Detroit in exchange for forward Jordan Owens on March 3, 2010.
* Please note the Blueshirts do not have practice scheduled for tomorrow, Feb. 21.
* The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at RBC Center (7:00 p.m.), in their fourth game in six days. The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio and newyorkrangers.com.POST-GAME QUOTESJohn Tortorella on today’s game …”I think our third periods have been good even when we are losing. We just haven’t made the next big play as far as putting it in the back of the net. But as far as our effort throughout the game, we had chances. We had chances right on through and the third period I thought we brought it to another level. I feel good about some of the things we did. I thought a number of players played really well, but it’s about winning a hockey game and we just haven’t been consistent enough here. We are going to ramp it up again tomorrow and start again.”Ryan Callahan on today’s game … “I don’t think we have to change anything that we are doing, we are working hard and getting opportunities. It’s just a matter of burying that next one, which we didn’t do today, and if that goes in you’re not sure what happens. We are working hard and executing our system and I thought today we played a full 60 minutes. We played a great game but at the end of the day we didn’t get the two points that we needed.”Marc Staal on tonight’s game … “We had a lot of shots on net and some opportunities to score. They just found a way to put some pucks behind us and a lot of times two goals isn’t enough to win games. We need to figure out how to get those third and fourth goals to put teams away.”